June 2016 Dear Six to Six Parents and Families

June 2016

Dear Six to Six Parents and Families:

This year Six to Six Magnet School will be participating in the Connecticut Reads Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge. The purpose of the program is to reinforce the love of reading in students all year round. Schools across the state compete based on student population and grade level. The program identifies the schools with the highest percentage of participating enrollment and the highest number of books read by participating students. Winners will be recognized in a special ceremony. It would be great if Six to Six students were recognized for their commitment to summer reading!

The theme of the reading challenge this year is “On Your Mark, Get Set…READ!” Students will receive book lists in their grade level band (K-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8) aligned to this theme. Students will also receive a “classics” book list with tried and true titles to enjoy. In order to participate in the challenge, students will be asked to hand in the “Summer Reading Journal” which will include every title the student read over the summer as well as a short response identifying their favorite book, at the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

Below you will find the minimum reading requirements for each grade level although we encourage students to read as much as possible!

Exiting Kindergarten: minimum of 15 books Exiting 1st Grade: minimum of 15 books Exiting 2nd Grade: minimum of 15 books Exiting 3rd Grade: minimum of 10 books Exiting 4th Grade: minimum of 10 books Exiting 5th Grade: minimum of 10 books Exiting 6th Grade: minimum of 6 books Exiting 7th Grade: minimum of 6 books

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the main office over the summer. All reading lists, math packets, and additional materials will also be available on our website: Thank you in advance for your support in fostering a love of reading and math in your child all year long!

Sincerely,

The Six to Six Literacy Team S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t * On Your Mark, Get Set... READ! Suggested summer reading compiled for the Connecticut Department of Grades K -2 Education by Linda Williams, Connecticut State Library

PICTURE BOOKS Miss Fox's Class Shapes Up by Eileen My Bike by Byron Barton Tom tells all about his bicycle, his ride to work past trucks, Spinelli cars, and even elephants, and his work as a circus performer. When Miss Fox realizes that her students do not have Emma and Julie Love Ballet by Barbara healthy habits, she teaches McClintock them that healthful living is A story that follows the everyday life of two girls, one a fun and rewarding, which professional ballerina, the other a student, both of whom love they find to be true on Field ballet. Day. | Lexile: 500 Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon Queen Victoria's A little boy’s grandfathers, one in America and one in Japan, teach him about baseball and its rich, varying cultural Bathing Machine by traditions. | Lexile: 610 | ALA Gloria Whelan Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales Inspired by a true story, when Queen Victoria is unable to Lucha Libre champion Nino has no trouble fending off go swimming without her subjects glimpsing her in a monstrous opponents, but when his little sisters awaken from swimming suit, her husband, Prince Albert, comes up with their naps, he is in for a no-holds-barred wrestling match that an innovative solution so his wife can indulge in the healthy will truly test his skills. | Lexile: 260 | ALA exercise. | Lexile: 820 | ALA, NCSS The Mighty Lalouche by Matthew Olshan EARLY READERS In Paris, France, more than a hundred years ago, a small man named Lalouche is let go from his job as a mail carrier and discovers that he Don't throw it to Mo! by David A. Adler has great skill as a fighter. | Lexile: 690 Mo is the youngest kid on the Robins football team. The kids on the rival team tease him for being a 'butterfingers' who's too Everyone Can Learn to tiny to catch the ball. But Mo's coach has a plan up his sleeve Ride a Bicycle by Chris to turn Mo's little size into a big win for the Robins. | Lexile: Raschka 270 | ALA A father teaches his daughter all about Hooray for Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold bicycle riding, from selecting the right Fly Guy joins Buzz's football team, despite Coach's bike to trying again after a fall. | misgivings, and hits the field for a special, secret play. | Lexile: Lexile: 70 270 Ninja Red Riding Hood by Play ball! by James Dean Corey Rosen Schwartz Pete the Cat is ready to play baseball! Pete's team, the In this twist on "Little Red Riding Hood," a certain wolf trains Rocks, is playing the Rolls. But when the game doesn't go to be a ninja in order to catch his prey, but he is not the only Pete's way, what will Pete do? | Lexile: 120 | ILA one mastering a martial art. | ILA The Totally Secret Secret by Bob Shea Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and While Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony are trying to decide Dance by Birgitta Sif what to play, they each share an important secret. | Lexile: 70 | Frances Dean loves to dance. She feels the wind and she ALA dances. She hears singing birds and she dances. In her every waking moment, she is inspired to move. But as soon as Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo anyone is around, Frances Dean's knees begin to tremble, Willems butterflies start to flutter in her tummy, and she forgets how to Friends Elephant and Piggie are playing outside when it starts dance. Will she ever find the courage to share her talent with to rain, and then they must decide what to do. | Lexile: 140 | others and feel free? | ILA ALA

April 2016 S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t *

EARLY READERS (cont.) The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Cork & Fuzz: The Swimming Lesson Meghan McCarthy by Dori Chaconas The exciting and bizarre true story of the 1904 Cork the muskrat wants his best friend Fuzz, a Olympic marathon, which took place at the St. possum, to visit his home, but first he must Louis World's Fair. teach Fuzz to swim and not be afraid of the water. | Lexile: 290 BIOGRAPHY GRAPHIC NOVEL Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumpers by Ann Malaspina Bean Dog and Nugget: The Ball by Charise A biography of the first black woman to win an Olympic Mericle Harper gold medal, from her childhood in segregated Albany, Bean Dog and Nugget lose Bean Dog's shiny new ball in a Georgia, in the 1930s, through her recognition at the 1996 bush. They dream up elaborate and silly ways to get it back Olympics as one of the hundred best athletes in Olympic while they argue about who is actually going to go and get history. | Lexile: 600 | ALA, IRA, NCSS it. | ILA Strong Man: The True Story of Charles Atlas by Meghan McCarthy POETRY Simple text and illustrations present the life of fitness legend Charles Atlas. | Lexile: 740 Poem Runs: Baseball Poems and Paintings by Queen of the Diamond: The Lizzie Murphy Douglas Florian Story by Emily Arnold McCully Collects a series of poems celebrating the sport of baseball, A picture book biography about Lizzie Murphy, the first including poems on the pitcher, the first baseman, the woman to play in a major league exhibition game and the umpire, and the fans. first person to play on both the New England and American leagues' all-star teams. | Lexile: 460 | ALA FOLKLORE Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson Previously depicted in the film Emmanuel's Gift, the The Tortoise & the Hare by Jerry Pinkney inspiring story of a West African youth who pursued an Illustrations and minimal text relate the familiar fable of the education, helped support his family and became a record- race between a slow tortoise and a quick but foolish hare. | setting cyclist in spite of a disability traces his ongoing ILA achievements as an activist. Illustrated by the award- winning artist of Little Cloud and Lady Wind. | Lexile: 770 | NONFICTION NCSS Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing Healthy Kids by Maya Ajmera All-Brother Baseball Team by Audrey Vernick Shows how children around the world stay healthy by eating Shares the story of the Acerras and their sixteen children, good food, having access to clean water, living in safe who had enough members to fill every position on a homes, and sharing a loving community. | Lexile: 1010 | baseball team. | Lexile: 780 | ILA NCSS You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! by How Did That Get in my Lunchbox?: The Jonah Winter Story of Food by Christine Butterworth Offers a look at the professional accomplishments and Easy-to-read text, accompanied by full-color illustrations, personal struggles of the noted pitcher, including the introduces young readers to the processes involved in discrimination he experienced as one of the only Jews in the producing food found in lunchboxes. | Lexile: 870 | NSTA game and the injury that caused him to retire at the peak of his career. | Lexile: 830 | ALA

*Many of the listed books were selected as exemplary books by one or more of the following organizations: the American Library Association (ALA), the International Literacy Association (ILA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) or the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). Other awards as noted. SSummer u m m e r R Reading e a d i n g Favorites & Classics For Kindergarten to Grade 2

Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang Maria Had a Little Llama / María Tenía Numbers from ten to one are part of this lullaby which una Llamita by Angela Dominguez observes the room of a little girl going to bed. In this bilingual version of the classic rhyme, Maria The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton takes her llama to school one day. Princess Pinecone would like a real war horse for her Abuela by Arthur Dorros birthday, instead of which she gets a plump, cute pony — While riding on a bus with her grandmother, a little but sometimes cuteness can be a kind of weapon, girl imagines that they are carried up into the sky and especially in a fight with dodgeballs and spitballs and fly over the sights of New York City. | Lexile: 520 hairballs and squareballs. | Lexile: 530 Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág by Jan Brett The Mitten How can an old man and his wife select one cat from a One by one, animals in a snowy forest crawl into choice of millions and trillions? | Lexile: 730 Nicki's lost white mitten to get warm until the bear sneezes, sending the animals flying up and out of the Dogs by Emily Gravett mitten. On each turn page, signature borders inspired Big dogs, small dogs, stripy dogs, spotty dogs. There are by Ukrainian folk art hint at what animal is coming so many different kinds of dogs. How can anyone pick next. | Lexile: 800 one type of dog to love the most? Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown Honey I Love: and Other Love Poems by Goodnight to each of the objects in the great green Eloise Greenfield room: goodnight chairs, goodnight comb, goodnight Titles include "I Look Pretty," "Fun," "Riding on the air. | Lexile: 360 Train," "Harriet Tubman," and "By Myself." | Lexile: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You 290 See? by Eric Carle Harold and the Purple Crayon by Children see a variety of animals, each one a different Crockett Johnson color, and a teacher looking at them. | Lexile: 440 Harold goes for an adventurous walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon. | Lexile: 490 Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats When Farmer Brown's cows find a typewriter in the The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very barn they start making demands, and go on strike snowy day. | Lexile: 500 when the farmer refuses to give them what they want. | Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lexile: 160 Lin Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Ling and Ting are identical twins that people think are Peña exactly the same, but time and again they prove to be A young boy rides the bus across town with his different. | Lexile: 390 grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in Frederick by Leo Lionni everyday things. | Lexile: 610 Frederick, the poet mouse, stores up something special Strega Nona: An Old Tale by Tomie de Paola for the long cold winter. | Lexile: 500 When Strega Nona leaves him alone with her magic George and Martha by James Marshall pasta pot, Big Anthony is determined to show the Relates several episodes in the friendship of two townspeople how it works. | Lexile: 800 hippopotamuses. | Lexile: 500

April 2016 SSummer u m m e r R Reading e a d i n g Favorites & Classics For Kindergarten to Grade 2

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Henry and Mudge: The First Book of Their An alphabet rhyme/chant that relates what happens when Adventures by Cynthia Rylant the whole alphabet tries to climb a coconut tree. | Lexile: Henry, feeling lonely on a street without any other 530 children, finds companionship and love in a big dog Make Way for Ducklings by Robert named Mudge. | Lexile: 420 McCloskey The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Mr. and Mrs. Mallard proudly return to their home in the Scieszka Boston Public Garden with their eight offspring. | Lexile: The wolf gives his own outlandish version of what really 630 happened when he tangled with the three little pigs. | Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary Lexile: 570 McKay Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Seven-year-old Lulu and her cousin think their vacation Sendak house is the most perfect place ever until they find a A naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails trouble-prone, stray dog living on the beach. | Lexile: 770 to the land of the wild things where he becomes their If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson king. | Lexile: 740 While planting seeds in their garden, two animals learn Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina the value of kindness. | Lexile: 150 A band of mischievous monkeys steals every one of a The Little Engine That Could by Watty peddler's caps while he takes a nap under a tree. | Lexile: 480 Piper Although she is not very big, the Little Blue Engine Red Sled by Patricia Thomas agrees to try to pull a stranded train full of toys over the A boy and his father lift one another's spirits by going mountain. | Lexile: 680 sledding on a winter's night. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Adventurous Peter Rabbit disobeys his mother and Mo Willems wanders into Mr. McGregor's garden. | Lexile: 660 When a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place. | Lexile: 120 Two lonely characters, one black and one white, meet on the street and become friends. Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann On a cold winter night many animals gather to party in the cave of a sleeping bear, who then awakes and An unobservant zookeeper is followed home by all the protests that he has missed the food and the fun. | Lexile: animals he thinks he has left behind in the zoo. 280

SERIES Alvin Ho series by Lenore Look Nate the Great series by Marjorie Weinman Cork & Fuzz series by Dori Chaconas Sharmat Freddie Ramos series by Jacquleine Jules Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel Fox series by James Marshall Bink and Gollie series by Kate DiCamillo Penny series by Kevin Henkes Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems Benny and Penny series by Geoffrey Hayes Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold Cowgirl Kate series by Erica Silverman S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t * On Your Mark, Get Set... READ! Suggested summer reading compiled for the Connecticut Department of Grades 3-4 Education by Linda Williams, Connecticut State Library

When Alvin's father takes him camping to PICTURE BOOKS instill a love of nature, like that of their home town hero Henry David Thoreau, Alvin A Dance Like Starlight: One makes a new friend and learns that he can be Ballerina's Dream by Kristy Dempsey brave despite his fear of everything | Lexile: & Floyd Cooper 570 | A young girl growing up in Harlem in the The Home-Run King by 1950s, whose mother cleans and stitches Patricia McKissack costumes for a ballet company, dreams of During the Depression in Nashville, Tennes becoming a prima ballerina one day, and is see, two baseball-loving brothers host Josh thrilled to see a performance of Janet Collins, Gibson, a star of the Negro Leagues, in their the first black prima ballerina. | Lexile: 1100 | home, and are motivated to get their own ALA team started as well. | Lexile: 570 by Stephen Krensky Play Ball, Jackie! Izzy Barr, Running Star by Claudia Mills On April 15, 1947, Matt Romano and his father watch the The third book in the Franklin School Friends series is a fast Brooklyn Dodgers season-opener, during which Jackie and funny story about sports, friendship, and sibling rival Robinson, a twenty-eight-year-old rookie, breaks the "color ries. | Lexile: 810 line" that had kept black men out of Major League baseball. Includes facts about Jackie Robinson's life and career. | Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Lexile: 480 Schneider by Matt Tavares A father tells outlandish stories while trying to get his young Mudball son, who is a very picky eater, to eat foods he thinks he will During a rainy Minneapolis Millers baseball game in 1903, not like. | Lexile: 500 | ALA Little Andy Oyler has the chance to become a hero by hitting the shortest and muddiest home run in Lulu Walks the Dogs by Judith history. | Lexile: 680 | Viorst Farmer Will Allen and the Lulu needs help from a boy named Fleischman if she is to earn money walking her neighbors' Growing Table by Jacqueline dogs, and she finds out that if she wants her Briggs Martin business venture to succeed, she has to be nice. The story of former basketball star and | Lexile: 940 current urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, In the Year of the Boar and whose vision of gardening from abandoned urban sites led to a grassroots feeding craze. | Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lexile: 770 | ALA Lord In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn CHAPTER BOOKS where she becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building, and by her love for Cinderella Smith by Stephanie baseball. | Lexile 730 | ALA Barden Cast off by her old friends, Cinderella agrees to help a new student deal with the stepsisters she will soon have, and GRAPHIC NOVELS meantime, a former friend tries to prevent Cinderella from dancing the lead in their tap recital. | Lexile: 670 Extreme Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hik It seems that everyone at school has taken up snowboarding, ing, and Other Natural Disasters by so Babymouse decides she must hit the slopes, too. | Lexile: Lenore Look 240 | ILA

April 2016 S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t *

POETRY basketball game between the best players from a white college and his team from a black college. At a time of Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: Americas' Sprout widespread segregation and rampant racism, this illegal ings: Haiku by Pat Mora gathering changed basketball forever. | Lexile 1170 | ILA, From blueberries to vanilla, indigenous foods of the Ameri NCTE cas are celebrated in this collection of haiku, which also Wilma includes information about each food's origins. | Lexile: 820 Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph NONFICTION Became the Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss World's Fastest Traces the childhood dream of Japanese-American baseball Woman by pioneer Kenichi Zenimura of playing professionally and his Kathleen Krull family's struggles in a World War II internment camp where A biography of the he introduces baseball to raise hope. | Lexile: 800 | ALA, Afr ic a n -A mer ic an NCSS woman who overcame Body Actions by crippling polio as a child to become the Shelley Rotner first woman to win Introduces the nervous, three gold medals in skeletal, muscular, respiratory, track in a single Olympics. | Lexile: 730 | ALA and circulatory systems and major organs through Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One illustrations of children Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map running, jumping, riding bikes, by Sue Macy and using all five senses and Recounts the first women's basketball game between explanatory overlays. | Lexile: Stanford University and University of California Berkeley 800 | IRA, NSTA on April 4, 1896, from Stanford guard Agnes Morley's Goal! by Sean Taylor perspective. | Lexile: 700 | NCSS Where there's a ball . . . there Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of will always be someone who wants to play soccer. Whether in Tanzania or Togo, Burma or Brazil, children love soccer. Sportswriter Mary Garber by Sue Macy GOAL! celebrates the sport's power to bridge cultural Details the life and accomplishments of Mary Garber, the divides and bring together the many and diverse people of first woman to win the APSE award and inducted into the the world. Filled with fun facts and striking photos, this Hall of Fame of National Sportcasters and Sportswriters book is a poetic snapshot of soccer around the globe. | NCSS Association. | Lexile: 910 Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire BIOGRAPHY by Roxane Orgill A colorful dual portrait of siblings Fred and Adele Astaire My Story, My Dance: Robert Battle's journey to traces their early 20th-century journey toward stardom, Alvin Ailey by Lesa Cline-Ransome describing their childhood practices and eventual successes Looks at the life of dancer and choreographer Robert Battle on Broadway and beyond. | Lexile: NCSS and his rise to the position of Artistic Director of Alvin Growing up Pedro: How the Martinez Brothers Ailey American Dance Theater. | Lexile: 1060 | ALA, ILA Made it From the Dominican Republic to the Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Major Leagues by Matt Tavares game by John Coy An illustrated biography of Pedro Martinez that describes In 1944, Coach John McLendon orchestrated a secret his childhood and how he became a famous baseball player. | Lexile: 820 | ALA, NCTE

*Many listed books were selected as exemplary by one or more of the following organizations: the American Library Asso ciation (ALA), the International Literacy Association (ILA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) or the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). S u m m e r R e a d i n g Favorites & Classics For Grades 3-4

My Name Is Maria Isabel Luz sees the Light by Claudia Dávila by Alma Flor Ada Luz, worried by blackouts in her neighborhood and Third grader María Isabel, born in Puerto Rico and her growing awareness of oil shortages and excessive now living in the U.S., wants badly to fit in at school; energy use, decides to turn an abandoned lot into a and the teacher's writing assignment "My Greatest garden and park with the help of her friends. | Lexile: Wish" gives her that opportunity. | Lexile: 880 390 How Tia Lola Came to Stay by Julia Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Alvarez Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first Although ten-year-old Miguel is at first embarrassed summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the by his colorful great aunt, Tia Lola, when she comes to good things that happen to her because of her big ugly Vermont from the Dominican Republic to stay with dog Winn-Dixie. | Lexile: 610 his mother, his sister, and him after his parents' The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes divorce, he learns to love her. | Lexile: 740 In winning a medal she is no longer there to receive, a Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater tight-lipped little Polish girl teaches her classmates a The unexpected delivery of a large crate containing an lesson. | Lexile: 870 Antarctic penguin changes the life and fortunes of Mr. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett Popper, a house painter obsessed by dreams of the A young boy determines to rescue a poor baby dragon Polar regions. | Lexile: 910 who is being used by a group of lazy wild animals to Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt ferry them across the river on Wild Island. | Lexile: The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing 990 situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a Paul and his sister Maureen's determination to own a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing pony from the herd on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, any older. | Lexile: 770 is greatly increased when the Phantom and her colt are Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans among the ponies rounded up for the yearly auction. | Madeline, smallest and naughtiest of the twelve little Lexile: 750 charges of Miss Clavel, wakes up one night with an The Tales of Uncle Remus attack of appendicitis. | Lexile: 480 as told by Julius Lester Freckle Juice by Judy Blume A retelling of the African American tales about the Andrew wants freckles so badly that he buys Sharon's adventures and misadventures of Brer Rabbit and his freckle recipe for fifty cents. | Lexile: 370 friends and enemies. | Lexile: 760 The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which Escapades of a lucky little girl who lives with a horse include getting into trouble with his younger brother and a monkey — but without any parents — at the Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow edge of a Swedish village. | Lexile: 870 taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend. | Sarah, Plain and Tall Lexile: 520 by Patricia MacLachlan James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl When their father invites a mail-order bride to come Wonderful adventures abound after James escapes live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna from his fearful aunts by rolling away inside a giant are captivated by their new mother and hope that she peach. | Lexile: 870 will stay. | Lexile: 560

April 2016 S u m m e r R e a d i n g Favorites & Classics For Grades 3-4

Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park Where the Sidewalk Ends Twelve-year-old Kevin Kim helps Chu-mong, a by Shel Silverstein legendary king of ancient Korea, return to his own A boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a time. | Lexile: 690 whale are only two of the characters in this collection of humorous poetry illustrated with the author's own Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco drawings. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's by John Steptoe great-great-grandfather. | Lexile: 590 Mufaro's two beautiful daughters, one bad-tempered, one Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes kind and sweet, go before the king, who is choosing a wife. | Lexile: 720 Visiting her grandmother in the Louisiana bayou, ten year-old Maddy begins to realize that she may be the All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor only sibling to carry on the gift of her family's magical The adventures of five sisters growing up in a Jewish legacy. | Lexile: 410 family in New York in the early twentieth century. | Lexile: 750 Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold A young girl dreams of flying above her Harlem home, Charlotte's Web by E. B. White claiming all she sees for herself and her family. Based on Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is the author's quilt painting of the same name. | Lexile: 790 destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him. | Lexile: Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say 680 A Japanese American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America which he also undertakes later, and Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep the feelings of being torn by a love for two different In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins countries. | Lexile: 560 his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his Knights of the Kitchen Table dream of making a flying machine. | Lexile: 870 by Jon Scieszka Lon Po Po by Ed Young Joe receives a magic book for his birthday present from Three sisters staying home alone are endangered by a his uncle. Joe, Fred, and Sam are transported to a time hungry wolf who is disguised as their grandmother. | when evil knights, fire-breathing dragons, and vile- Lexile: 670 smelling giants roamed the land. | Lexile: 630

SERIES Tia Lola series by Julia Alvarez Gooney Bird series by Lois Lowry The Julian series by Ann Cameron Lulu series by Hilary McKay Ramona series by Beverly Cleary The Knight’s tales series by Gerald Morris Amber Brown series by Paula Danziger Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park Clubhouse Mystery series by Sharon Draper Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker The Carver Chronicles by Karen English Calvin Coconut series by Graham Salisbury Nikki and Deja series by Karen English The Time Warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka Dyamonde Daniel series by Nikki Grimes Dragonbreath series by Ursula Vernon Babymouse series by Jennifer L. Holm EllRay Jakes series by Sally Warner Bunnicula series by James Howe Summer Reading List* Get in the Game: READ! ~ Grades 5-6 Suggested summer reading compiled for the Connecticut Department of Education by Linda Williams, Connecticut State Library

FICTION The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman Eleven-year-old Eddie gets a chance to win a million dollars The Green Bicycle by Haifaa Al Mansour by sinking a foul shot at the National Basketball Association Since girls do not ride bikes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, eleven finals. | Lexile: 680| Nutmeg 2000 Winner year old Wadjda has to scheme to get her own. | Lexile: 790 The Underdogs by Mike Lupica | ALA Small but fast twelve-year-old Will Tyler, an avid football Soar by Joan Bauer player in the down-and-out town of Forbes, Pennsylvania, Moving to Hillcrest, Ohio, when his adoptive father accepts takes matters into his own hands to try and finance the city's a temporary job, twelve-year-old Jeremiah, a heart football team, giving the whole community hope in the transplant recipient, has sixty days to find a baseball team to process. | Lexile: 840 coach. | Lexile: 510 After All, You're Callie Boone by Winnie Tangerine by Edward Bloor Mack Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his Runaway ferrets, former BFF drama-trauma, and one football hero brother Erik, fights for the right gigantic (and very, very public) belly flop. No doubt about to play soccer despite his near blindness and it, Callie Boone's summer is crummy. The only slowly begins to remember the incident that things keeping her afloat are dive practice with her dad and a top-secret Olympic dream. Then damaged his eyesight. | Lexile: 680 | ALA, ILA a boy named Hoot-who is not her boyfriend!- Zombie Baseball Beatdown by moves in next door and turns her world upside Paolo Bacigalupi down and right-side up. | Lexile: 800 While practicing for their next baseball game, King of the Mound by Wes Tooke thirteen-year-old friends Rabi, Miguel, and Twelve-year-old Nick loves baseball so after a Joe discover that the nefarious activities of the year in the hospital fighting polio and with a Delbe, Iowa, meatpacking plant have caused brace on one leg, Nick takes a job with the cows to turn into zombies. | Lexile: 650 | team for which his father is catcher and gets to The Warriors by Joseph Bruchac see the great pitcher, Satchel Paige, play during Jake has left the reservation for Weltimore the 1935 season. | Lexile: 900 | Nutmeg 2015 Academy and entered a different world. Everyone there loves lacrosse, but no one understands it the way Jake does, Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool as an Iroquois. And no one understands Jake either. | Lexile: Odyssey-like adventure of two boys' incredible quest on the 810 | Nutmeg 2007 Appalachian Trail where they deal with pirates, buried secrets, and extraordinary encounters. | Lexile: 790 | ALA, by Mick The Girl Who Threw Butterflies NCTE Cochrane Eighth-grader Molly’s ability to throw a knuckleball earns Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff her a spot on the baseball team, which not only helps her In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one sixth- feel connected to her recently deceased father, who loved grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, baseball, but helps in other aspects of her life, as well. | during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface. | Lexile: 750 Lexile: 930 | ALA Maximilian & the Mystery of the Arcady's Goal by Eugene Yelchin Guardian Angel by Xavier Garza When twelve-year-old Arcady is sent to a children's home Eleven-year-old Margarito, a big fan of the form of after his parents are declared enemies of the state in Soviet wrestling known as lucha libre, begins to suspect that he has Russia, soccer becomes a way to secure extra rations, a close connection with his favorite luchador, El Angel de respect, and protection but it may also be his way out if he can believe in and love another person — and himself. | La Guardia, the Guardian Angel. | Lexile: 820 | ALA Lexile: 630 | ILA

April 2016 Summer Reading List*

GRAPHIC NOVELS BIOGRAPHY Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson Women Daredevils: Thrills, Chills, A graphic novel adventure about a girl who and Frills by Julie Cummins discovers roller derby right as she and her best The stories of fourteen women during the period friend are growing apart. | Lexile: 440 | ALA from 1880 to 1929 who performed feats of daring from being shot out of a cannon to high- POETRY diving on horseback. (CIP) | Lexile: 1140 | NCSS A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Women Explorers: Perils, Pistols, Words About Food by Eric-Shabazz and Petticoats by Julie Cummins Larkin Introduces inspiring women whose passions for Presents a collection of children's poems about growing, exploration made them push the boundaries, including Nellie Cashman, Annie Smith Peck, and Delia Julia making, eating, and sharing food. | ALA Denning Akeley. | Lexile: 1150 NONFICTION Ali: An American Champion by Barry What the World Eats by Faith Denenberg D'Aluisio Puts the famous boxer into A photographic collection exploring what the historical context through the world eats featuring portraits of twenty-five use of newspaper articles, families from twenty-one countries interviews, opinion pieces, and surrounded by a week's worth of food. photographs. | Lexile: 1030 | (Publisher) | Lexile: 1150 ALA, NCSS NCSS We Are the Ship: The Story of Queen of the Track: Negro League Baseball by Kadir Alice Coachman, Nelson Olympic High-Jump Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson Champion by Heather Lang tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings Tells the story of Alice Coachman, an athlete from rural in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson Georgia who made history as the first African-American crossed over to the majors in 1947. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948. | Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Lexile: 790 | ALA Nelson. | Lexile: 900 | ALA ¡Olé! Flamenco by George A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Ancona Mamie “Peanut” Johnson by Michelle Y. Photo-essay about Flamenco, a southern Green Spanish art form that incorporates song, Presents a biography of Mamie Johnson, one of three dance, and music, tracing its cultural history women to play in the professional Negro League, and focusing on a contemporary young girl discussing the challenges she faced as a black woman and her brother as they learn the traditional to make her way into professional baseball. | Lexile: style of movement and instrument playing. | 860 | NCSS Lexile: 920 | ALA The Closer : Young Readers Edition by Pedal It!: How Bicycles are Mariano Rivera Changing the World by Michelle Mulder A middle-grade adaptation of the New York Yankees world Presents information about bicycles, including their history, champion's memoir recounts how he knew nothing about their construction, how they are used for work and baseball in his early childhood, his rapid rise as a pitcher, recreation, and how they are used to make a difference in and his experiences with Yankees teammates. the lives of people. | Lexile: 1060

*Many listed books were selected as exemplary books by one or more of the following organizations: the American Library Association (ALA), the International Literacy Association (ILA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the Na- tional Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) or the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). Others awards as noted. Summer Reading Favorites & Classics For Grades 5-6

Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich After his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the their Vermont farm from foreclosure, eleven-year-old Tyler Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the befriends the oldest daughter, but when he discovers they perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. | may not be in the country legally, he realizes that real Lexile: 970 friendship knows no borders. | Lexile: 890 The Ear, the Eye, and theArm by The Incredible Journey by Sheila Nancy Farmer Burnford In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian mutant detectives use their special powers to search for wilderness to find their family. | Lexile: 1320 them. | Lexile: 660 Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh Lupe, Flapjack, and Elirio customize their car into a low Eleven-year-old Harriet, who is a spy and plans to be an rider for the Universal Car Competition to win the cash author, keeps a secret notebook filled with thoughts and prize that will enable them to buy their own garage. | Lexile: notes on her schoolmates and people she observes on her 430 afterschool spy route, but when some of her classmates read the notebook, they seek revenge. | Lexile: 760 Extra Credit by Andrew Clements As letters flow back and forth — between the prairies of Bandit’s Moon by Sid Fleischman Illinois and the mountains of Afghanistan, across cultural Twelve-year-old Annyrose relates her adventures with and religious divides — sixth-grader Abby, ten-year-old Joaquín Murieta and his band of outlaws in the California Amira, and eleven-year-old Sadeed begin to speak and gold-mining region during the mid-1800s. | Lexile: 690 listen to each other. | Lexile: 830 Coraline by Neil Gaiman The Watsons Go To Birmingham - Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, souls of three others. | Lexile: 740 Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. | Lexile: 1000 No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman The Search for WondLa by Tony Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in DiTerlizzi spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production Living in isolation with a robot on what appears to be an and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the alien world populated with bizarre life forms, a twelve-year- play but his life as well. | Lexile: 610 old human girl called Eva Nine sets out on a journey to find others like her. Features "augmented reality" pages, in The Lion, the Witch, and the which readers with a webcam can access additional information about Eva Nine's world. | Lexile: 760 Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch, Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in who has cursed the land with eternal winter. | Lexile: 940 her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions. | Lexile: 680

April 2016 Summer Reading Favorites & Classics For Grades 5-6

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten- In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. | but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina Lexile: 670 bears down upon them. | Lexile: 470 Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan Montgomery Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the impression on everyone around her. | Lexile: 850 eve of the Great Depression. | Lexile: 750 The Borrowers by Mary Norton Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar Miniature people who live in an old country house by Two middle-grade kids take a shortcut home from school borrowing things from the humans are forced to emigrate and discover what looks like fuzzy mud but is actually a from their home under the clock. | Lexile: 780 substance with the potential to wreak havoc on the entire world. | Lexile: 700 A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams- how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself. | Garcia Lexile: 920 In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their when he becomes friends with a newcomer who mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm. | Lexile: 810 Black Panther summer camp. | Lexile: 750

SERIES

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander Regarding the.... series by Kate Klise Crispin trilogy by Avi Dog Friday trilogy by Hilary McKay Poppy series by Avi The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan John Bellairs Mysteries by John Bellairs Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee The Moffats series by Eleanor Estes Stewart Joey Pigza series by Jack Gantos Sammy Keyes series by Wendelin Van Draanen Shadow Children by Margaret Peterson Haddix Adam Canfield series by Michael Winrip Redwall series by Brian Jacques Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney Dear America series by various authors S u m m e r R e a d i n g Get in the Game: READ! ~ Grades 7-8 Suggested hero-themed summer reading titles compiled for the Connecticut Department of Education by Linda Williams, Connecticut State Library

training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, FICTION sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. | Lexile: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander 990 | ALA, Nutmeg Nominee 2009 Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle by Mal Peet with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores Keeper In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El his declining health. | Lexile: 750 | ALA, IRA Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff and Laura events, experiences, and people that helped make him a DeLuca great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.| Lexile: 780 | When war comes to her village in southern Sudan, Poni is ALA forced to flee, and join thousands of refugees by Robert travelling on foot and experiencing great The Berlin Boxing Club hardship on their way to a refugee camp. | Sharenow In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, Lexile: 770 | ALA considered Jewish despite a non-religious Skinny by Donna Cooner upbringing, learns to box from the legendary After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, a self Max Schmeling while struggling with the -loathing, obese teenaged girl loses weight and realities of the Holocaust. | Lexile: 880 | ALA, makes the brave decision to start participating NCSS in high school life, including pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and finding love. | Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick Lexile: 670 | ALA, ILA After an injury ends former star pitcher Peter Crackback by John Coy Friedman's athletic dreams, he concentrates on Miles barely recalls when football was fun photography which leads him to a girlfriend, new after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized fame as a high school sports photographer, and a deeper by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take relationship with the beloved grandfather who, when he performance-enhancing drugs. | Lexile: 490 | ALA, Nutmeg realizes he is becoming senile, gives Pete all of his 2010 professional camera gear. | Lexile: 800 | ALA Foul Trouble by John Feinstein The Running Dream by Wendelin Van College recruiters are clamoring to sign up Terrell Draanen Jamerson, the #1 high school basketball player in the When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica country. But not all of these recruiters are straight shooters, an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and and Terrell will have to think fast if he wants to stay in the her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her game. | Lexile: 770 | ALA dream of running again. | Lexile: 650 | ALA, Nutmeg Looks by Madeleine George Nominee 2013 Two high school girls, one an anorexic poet and the other an The Final Four by Paul Volponi obese loner, form an unlikely friendship. | Lexile: 1060 | Four players at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball ALA, NCSS tournament struggle with the pressures of tournament play Rash by Pete Hautman and the expectations of society at large. | Lexile: 870 | ALA In a future society that has decided it would “rather be safe Now is the Time for Running by Michael than free,” sixteen-year-old Bo’s anger control problems Williams land him in a tundra jail where he survives with the help of When soldiers attack a small village in Zimbabwe, Deo his running skills and an artificial intelligence program goes on the run with Innocent, his older, mentally disabled named Bork. | Lexile: 730 brother, carrying little but a leather soccer ball filled with Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock money, and after facing prejudice, poverty, and tragedy, it is After spending her summer running the family farm and in soccer that Deo finds renewed hope. | Lexile: 650 | Nutmeg Nominee 2014

April 2016 S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t *

GRAPHIC NOVEL Fourth Down and Inches: Con cussions and Football: Make-or-Break To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Moment by Carla McClafferty Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel and Offers a look at the origins of football and the Mark Seigel latest research on concussion and traumatic In graphic format, the author shares her story brain injuries in the sport. | Lexile: 1070 of how, after being diagnosed with flat feet, she decided to take ballet classes at the age The Omnivore’s Dilemma for of six and was accepted to the School of Kids by Michael Pollan American Ballet when she was eleven. | An adaptation of the famous book offers in Lexile: 610 | ALA, ILA, NCTE sight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of POETRY unlimited food varieties reveals the responsi bilities of consumers to protect their health and Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron the environment. | Lexile: 930 Koertge Fourteen-year-old Kevin Boland, poet and first baseman, is BIOGRAPHY torn between his cute girlfriend — Mira — and Amy, who is funny, plays Chopin on the Meet the Dancers: From Ballet, piano, and is also a poet. | ALA Broadway, and Beyond by Amy Nathan Dancers from all kinds of backgrounds talk NONFICTION about their different paths to success as ballerinas, modern dancers, music video Pinstripe Pride: The Inside Story performers, and Broadway showstoppers. | of the New York Yankees by Marty Lexile: NCSS Appel No Summit Out of Sight: The Profiles the New York Yankees team and True Story of the Youngest Person to chronicles the teams World Series champion Climb the Seven Summits by Jordan ships and American League pennants. | Lex ile: 1080 Romero The story of Jordan Romero, who at the age of The Boys in the Boat: The True 13 became the youngest person ever to reach Story of an American Team's Epic the summit of Mount Everest. At age 15, he Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics by reached the summits of the world's 7 highest mountains. | Lexile: 850 Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone Describes the American rowing team's triumphant and Breakaway: Beyond the Goal by Alex Morgan unlikely win during the 1936 Olympics. | The Olympic gold medal-winning soccer Lexile: 1000 player details her path to success, from her childhood in California to her time on the Chocolate: Sweet Science and Dark United States' National team. | Lexile: 960 Secrets of the World's Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg Legends: The Best Players, Games, A fascinating account for teen readers that and Teams in Football by Howard captures the history, science, and economic Bryant and cultural implications of the harvesting of Offers highlights and entertaining facts from cacao and creation of chocolate. | Lexile: twenty of the greatest Super Bowls in the 1330 | NSTA history of professional football. | Lexile: 1080

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson The Thing About Luck by Cynthia When their owner dies at the start of the Revolution, Isabel and Kadohata her younger sister are sold to Loyalists in New York, where Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can Isabel is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots. | Lexile: 780 possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little by Avi City of Orphans brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for In 1893 New York, thirteen-year-old Maks, a newsboy, teams harvest workers. | Lexile: 700 up with Willa, a homeless girl, to clear his older sister, Emma, from charges that she stole from the brand new Waldorf Hotel, The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause where she works. Includes historical notes. | Lexile: 570 A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoë come to terms with her mother's terminal illness. | Lexile: 690 Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney Listen Slowly by Thanhha Lai The Finches, a Connecticut family, sponsor an African refugee Assisting her grandmother's investigation of her grandfather's family of four, all of whom have been scarred by the horrors of fate during the Vietnam War, Mai struggles to adapt to an civil war, and who inadvertently put their benefactors in harm's unfamiliar culture while redefining her sense of family. | way. | Lexile: 750 Lexile: 800 Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel by Diana In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born Lopez child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the When thirteen-year-old Erica "Chia" Montenegro finds out her American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to mother has breast cancer, she makes a promise to God to raise justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be money for breast cancer awareness and discovers that when used to buy a family's freedom. | Lexile: 1070 family and friends work together, miracles can happen. | Lexile: 700 Eva by Peter Dickinson The Giver by Lois Lowry After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, she has been given the body of a chimpanzee. | Lexile: 1010 Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one Whirligig by Paul Fleischman other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about While traveling to each corner of the country to build a the society in which he lives. | Lexile: 760 whirligig in memory of the girl whose death he caused, sixteen The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement. | Lexile: 760 Sonia Manzano The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman It is 1969 in Spanish Harlem, and fourteen-year-old Evelyn After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders Serrano is trying hard to break free from her conservative into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural Puerto Rican surroundings, but when her activist grandmother residents agree to raise him as one of their own. | Lexile: 820 comes to stay and the neighborhood protests start, things get a lot more complicated--and dangerous. | Lexile: 720 by Virginia Hamilton House of Dies Drear by Ben Mikaelsen A black family of five moves into an enormous house once Touching Spirit Bear used as a hiding place for runaway slaves. Mysterious sounds After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid and events as well as the discovery of secret passageways make going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative the family believe they are in grave danger. | Lexile: 670 based on the native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Chomp by Carl Hiaasen Bear changes his life. | Lexile: 670 When the difficult star of the reality television show Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell "Expedition Survival" disappears while filming an episode in Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of the Florida Everglades using animals from the wildlife refuge California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not run by Wahoo Crane's family, Wahoo and classmate Tuna only merely surviving through her enormous courage and Gordon set out to find him while avoiding Tuna's gun-happy self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her father. | Lexile: 800 solitary life. | Lexile: 1000

April 2016 S u m m e r R e a d i n g Favorites & Classics For Grades 7-8

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen A black family living in the South during the 1930s are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four understand. | Lexile: 920 days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien to survive his parents' divorce. | Lexile: 1020 Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other which he may never return. | Lexile: 1000 community members relate how a school project to build the world's largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voigt involved. | Lexile: 1000 A car accident causes fifteen-year-old Izzy to lose one leg and The River Between Us by Richard Peck face the need to start building a new life as an amputee. | Lexile: 790 During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to Howl's Moving Castle come north to Illinois. | Lexile: 740 by Diana Wynne Jones The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a Tiffany, a young witch-to-be in the land of Discworld, teams misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl. | Fairyland. | Lexile: 680 Lexile: 800 Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. | Lexile: culture. | Lexile: 530 590 The Pigman by Paul Zindel Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy by Suzanne Fisher Staples homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man. | Lexile: 950 When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to Death tells the story of a young German girl, Liesel, whose the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the book-stealing and story-telling talents during World War II custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes. help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as | Lexile: 970 well as their neighbors. | Lexile: 730 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

FAVORITE SERIES The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman Young Wizards series by Diane Duane Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth The Rangers Apprentice by John Flanagan Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer by Michael Scott The Squire's Tales series by Gerald Morris The Tillermans series by Cynthia Voigt The News Crew series by Walter Dean Myers Leviathan series by Scott Westerfield 2016

THE GOVERNOR’S SUMMER READING CHALLENGE

Students and Families: SUMMER READING JOURNAL To learn more, ask your teacher, principal, or school or public librarian, or contact the Connecticut State Department of Education at 860-713-6751 or www.ct.gov/sde.

Name

Grade

School

Town G ARK, ET ON YOUR M SET...READ! My favorite book was

I liked this book because

Connecticut Reads 2016 The Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge 2016

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET...READ! The Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge

Title of Book 16.

1. 17.

2. 18.

3. 19.

4. 20.

5. 21.

6. 22.

7. 23.

8. 24.

9. 25.

10. 26.

11. 27.

12. 28.

13. 29.

14. 30.

15. Total Number of Books Read